Winslow Police Department via YouTube.
A recently released body camera video of a 27-year-old Navajo woman who was shot five times after allegedly being involved in a shoplifting incident in Winslow, Arizona, shows the altercation between the police officer and Loreal Tsingine. Tsingine died, while the officer was cleared of any wrongdoing earlier this week.
No audio was available in first seconds but the video portion shows how the officer aggressively pushes Tsingine to the ground. A pair of scissors is seen in her hand as another officer is seen behind her. The officer pushes her again and something falls out of her pocket, which looks like medication. She gets up and walks toward the officer with the pair of scissors in her hand as he lifts his gun and aims directly at her. The video then fades to black and the audio kicks in. After the sound of heavy, labored breathing the officer says, “She came at me with those scissors.”
“I don’t care if she stole copy,000 worth of merchandise or whether she was brandishing a knife or scissors. In the larger historical context, I see this as a violation of an Indigenous woman and her space was violated,” said Brandon Benallie of the Border Town Justice Coalition of the video. “She responded appropriately. In this larger historical context, she acted bravely. She dared to defend her body.”
Benallie also questioned why the other officer did not get involved. “There was no point for him to shoot. This other cop could have taken her down. (Officer) Shipley chooses to murder her rather than create a situation where Loreal would be alive today.”
Benallie, the family of Tsingine and other members of the Border Town Justice Coalition will line the streets of this small town near the Navajo Nation today in efforts they say will hold the city’s police department accountable for crimes towards Indigenous people after Officer Austin Shipley shot Tsingine on Easter.
“Join us and make sure the Winslow Police Department and the City of Winslow, a bordertown settlement, are held accountable for their inhuman crimes towards Indigenous people and other people of color,” read a Coalition news release.
The group is protesting a recent decision by an independent ruling by the Maricopa County Attorney’s office, which stated that no criminal wrongdoing occurred. The Winslow Police Department requested an independent investigation into the incident by the Arizona Department of Public Safety, which turned over its report to Maricopa County at the request of Navajo County Attorney’s office.
Loreal Tsingine’s death at the hands of cops didn’t make the news anywhere much, outside of local news and Indian news outlets. Indigenous people are killed at high rates by cops, and they are subject to the same harassment as other people of colour. I doubt much will be done in this case, but here’s hoping anyway. My thoughts are with the family, friends, and protesters.
Bodycam footage Winslow Arizona shooting.
Full story at ICTMN.
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Because the officer behind her couldn’t safely render her weaponless? Because you must kill these strange non-white people with whom you cannot find enough common ground to talk to as human beings?
Sick.
rq:
Anyone behind her could have easily disarmed her, all you had to do was grab her wrist from behind and twist. No more scissors, problem solved. Not good enough, apparently. Only 5 fucking bullets would do.
So that’s what an Indian life is worth: five fucking pieces of lead.
Why didn’t the cop back out and de-escalate?
Oh, right, he was “scared” because he didn’t de-escalate, so he couldn’t de-escalate because he was scared.
rq, yeah. If you got to The Counted, you’ll see that Natives are always the highest casualties to police. This year, we rank at 5.49, as opposed to Black people, who are next at 3.83.
And that’s just people murdered by cops. The rest of the time, they can’t be bothered trying to find out who did murder Indigenous people. Mari has some of those people up at Polychromantium.
Marcus @ 4:
Betcha those two hefty cops would have managed to de-escalate if Loreal had been white.
Caine@#6:
Betcha those two hefty cops would have managed to de-escalate if Loreal had been white.
It never would have gotten far enough to need de-escalation.
I get pulled over occasionally (things like driving a car wearing open-ear studio headphones) and it’s always “sir” very polite. I wish everyone could have my privilege. I’d be willing to share it, I really would. Because all it’d take is for the cops to be nice and courteous to everyone.
Marcus:
You should try driving with rez plates sometime. Being white, the cops would manage to put their guns away after they inspected your whiteness thoroughly, and would limit themselves to minor harassment, rather than putting you in fear of your life.
Caine@#8: I’ve had a few stops at back off the road checkpoints looking for “illegals”; I have a vague idea how bad it can get but of course I’m not used to it always being like that. One time I was pulled over by border cops on a motorcycle in the middle of noplace in New Mexico, and -- of course -- trying to be helpful I whipped my helmet off and hung it on my handlebar. As soon as I moved fast, guns were out.
That was a few years ago. The me that I was then was thinking about whether or not I should call my lawyer from the truckstop and see if I could sue them for assault and terroristic threats. The me that I am now is depressed into immobility. What the fuck can we do with these horrible cops that overrun the country?
Marcus:
I don’t have an answer. People are paralyzed with fear, never knowing if they’ll survive an encounter with cops, and I can’t help but think the storm troopers are happy with that. And they wonder why some people are shooting back. I’d think, for all they talk about constantly being in fear of their lives, they might understand that the rest of us don’t fucking like that, either.